Accurately measuring the three dimensional shape of a manufactured part, such as the surface of a flat panel display, can be accomplished using an optical profilometer. The optical profilometer can measure laser generated light reflected from the surface of the manufactured part as illustrated by the prior art optical measurement system 100 in FIG. 1. A laser 102 can direct light in a narrow angle onto the surface 112 of the manufactured part under measurement test. A laser profilometer typically can measure a shape using a “main beam” of light reflected from the point “r” rather than using a “side beam” of light reflected from the point “q” and therefore a sufficiently matte, diffusely reflecting surface can be preferred. A camera 104 can be positioned to capture either the specular reflected main beam 106 or the combination of the diffuse reflected main beam 108 and the specular reflected side beam 110. A measurement process using the laser profilometer can be slow as the laser's position/orientation and/or the camera's position/orientation can be changed to measure each point reflected from the measured manufactured part. In addition, the specialized equipment to control the adjustments and measurements can be costly. To measure a reflective surface with a fine spatial resolution, tens of thousands of points can be used and can require a significant amount of time to measure a single manufactured part. Thus, there exists a need for a low cost and rapid measurement method and system to estimate the shape of one or more layers of reflective manufactured parts with a high degree of resolution and appropriate for high volume manufacturing test, assembly and quality control operations.